1903 The Art Fund charity founded as the National Art Collections Fund, with 308 members and £700 in funds. First successful public appeal 1905 to save Whistler's Nocturne in Blue and Gold for the Tate. In 1906 another campaign saved Velazquez's Rokeby Venus for the National Gallery, and Edward VII became the charity's first patron. The charity occasionally buys works outright, but more usually pump primes with small grants: recent successes include Titian's Venus Anadyomene for the National Gallery of Scotland, from the same Duke of Sutherland loan as the Diana and Actaeon.

1977 National Heritage Memorial Fund, a fast-moving fund of last resort, was founded over the perceived disaster of the loss of Mentmore House and its contents - offered to the nation in lieu of tax but turned down - out of the old Land Fund, originally conceived as a war memorial. Recent grants include Canova's Three Graces for the V&A and the National Galleries of Scotland and Turner's Blue Rigi for the Tate.

1994 Heritage Lottery Fund, funded by the national lottery. Has voted £10m for the Titian appeal, given £11m to the National Gallery to help acquire Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks, and £8.3m to buy Stubbs' horse portrait, Whistlejacket.

Acceptance in lieuWorks accepted for the national collection by the Treasury in lieu of inheritance tax: £15.5m worth of acquisitions announced earlier this month including paintings, books, furniture and a Roman sarcophagus.

Export barTemporary government delay on granting export licence after sale of art object judged of national importance, to allow public collection to match the price: the Three Graces, the Blue Rigi and the Macclesfield Psalter were export barred, and Lambeth Palace library recently bought the only surviving copy of the death warrant of Mary Queen of Scots after a bar.